List Speakers

Mohammed Rezwan

Mohammed Rezwan

Executive Director, SHIDHULAI SWANIRVAR SANGSTHA

Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha’s founder Mohammed Rezwan envisions the river ecology as a communications network insisting that, “If the children cannot come to school because of roads going under flood-water, then the school should come to them.'' Under his leadership a 54-vessel fleet of floating schools, libraries, health clinics, solar service boats and floating training centres with wireless internet access, serving close to 90,000 families in flood-prone Bangladesh.

Boats themselves are outfitted with solar panels that power computers, lights and medical equipment. But the boats bring more than services to these cut-off areas - they bring electricity. Rezwan introduces Surya(sun)-Hurricane(lantern), a solar lantern made from recycled parts of the conventional and much used kerosene lantern, that ensures safe travel through flooded lands in night. Rezwan has developed three-tier farming on water, and “bamboo, bottle and siren flood warning system”, which is proof to Bangladesh people that living on water are possible.

Rezwan is the Founder and Executive Director at Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha. He is always brining new technologies and ideas to create more impacts. Applying his architectural expertise, he designs spaces on boats that successfully accommodating the need of a school, library, training to healthcare centre. He also develops graphics and designs that are used in distance-learning tutorials and animated hand-outs making curriculum easily understandable for patrons. His work, including books for children, articles, and research reports have been published both nationally and internationally. He introduced the first river-based environmental curriculum in the country.

Rezwan has received national and international awards and recognitions, for example, Cordes Fellowship 2010, Heroes of the Great Bengal 2006 of the Daily Prothom Alo and Grameen Phone, Social Entrepreneur of the Global Philanthropy Forum 2006 and Citizen Based Initiative Award 2003 of Ashoka. The other international awards that Rezwan received on behalf of Shidhulai are: Tech Museum Awards 2009, UNEP-IUCN Seed Gold Awards 2009, GFC Sustainability Award 2008, UNEP Sasakawa Prize 2007, Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy 2007, UNDP's Equator Prize 2006, Access to Learning Award 2005 of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Municipality of Rome Global Junior Challenge Award 2004 and Tech Museum Awards 2004. He has always been in the international news, including the front page of The Time for Kids (U.S.), Washington Post, the Independent (UK), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany), IRIN News and Agence France-Presse (AFP). He was featured at the CNN International, Al Jajeera English, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) and also on the BBC News. He made presentations at many international conferences including International Parliamentary Conference on Climate Change in Houses of Parliament in London, U.K in 2007.

His innovation SuryaHurricane provides families with high-quality light in the evening for children to study and women to do craftwork to earn extra income. Because of boat schools girls take full advantage of the education and information facilities delivered right to their doorsteps. Students are continuing education during the monsoon. Training boats have reduced pesticide usages by 65 percent and agricultural productivity is increased by 70 percent.